Childminder knowledge of shaken baby syndrome and the role played by childminders in prevention: An observational study in France.

BACKGROUND: Shaken baby syndrome (SBS) triggers negative short- and long-term outcomes. In France, registered childminders are the principal source of daycare. They may encounter SBS imparted by caregivers or simply excessive infant crying. The aim of the study was to explore childminder knowledge on SBS, the source of information, the responses to infant crying, how childminders perceived their roles in terms of caregiver SBS prevention, and the factors associated with a good knowledge of SBS. METHODS: The participants were registered childminders working in the French department of Gironde who had email accounts. This observational study employed an anonymous online questionnaire distributed by the maternal and child health services unit of the Gironde department over 5 weeks from 16 September 2021. Data on childminder characteristics, knowledge on SBS, responses to infant crying, and perceptions of their roles in SBS prevention were collected. The knowledge score ranged from 0 (all wrong answers) to 30 (all correct answers). RESULTS: A total of 779 registered childminders participated; 43.9 % had learnt about SBS during their initial training and 75 % before (other training) or after initial training. The median knowledge score was 19/30 (interquartile range [16; 21]). A higher educational level, previous other professional experience, training on SBS, and responsibility for few children were associated with higher scores. Ten reported that they did not advise caregivers who complained of infant crying. CONCLUSION: Childminders require training on SBS and SBS prevention.

Echocardiographic and histological assessment of age-related valvular changes in normal rats.

Aging is associated with morphologic and functional alterations of the rat's left ventricle. However, the time-course of valvular function and morphology in normal aging rats has not yet been studied. For this purpose, 30 male Wistar rats (318 +/- 5g, 10 weeks old) underwent serial echocardiograms for 58 weeks under sodium pentobarbital 50 mg/kg IP anesthetization followed by necropsy. Histopathology was also performed in two additional groups of 10 rats at 10 and 30 weeks of age. Regurgitations were considered as any retrograde flow on 2-D or M-mode color Doppler echocardiography. Tricuspid regurgitation was already found at 10 weeks of age and became more frequent with age. Pulmonary, mitral and aortic regurgitation was seldom observed at 10 weeks but became more frequent after 30 weeks. For the mitral and aortic valve, this was also associated with an increase in valvular thickness because of nodular or segmental myxoid leaflet changes. The severity of valvular regurgitations did not increase with age. In conclusion, aging leads to morphologic and functional valvular changes in normal rats. This is important when investigating models of valvular heart disease in small animals.